One of the most popular (i.e. the most clicked on/referred by google/etc) post I ever did was also one of my first. It was Review: Kevin Trudeau’s Natural Cures: Part 1 and it easily has the most comments. My old blog at Blogger is still getting hits & comments all the time. Here’s the latest (in italics below with my responses in bold):

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well I am outraged. I personally went through a battery of tests in my 20’s and went through 5 heart specialists, was misdiagnosed, missed two months of work, and finally diagnosed with mild MVP!

I’m very sorry to hear that.

So yes, it is possible for the “medical” specialists to be idiots and completely miss something as simple as MVP.

I’m always fascinated that those that cannot meet the expectations of some are automatically idiots, regardless of the issue at hand.

And as for the injection of cellular material, I dont know much about that but what the heck do you think is in vaccinations????? Chicken embryos, monkey livers ect….Doesnt the medical community claim this is a perfectly safe procedure to inject our children with?

Are you suggesting that vaccinations are “chicken embryos” and “monkey livers?” Vaccinations are comprised of vaccines, which are killed or otherwise inert forms of microorganisms like bacteria or viruses. They “teach” the immune system what the actual virus looks like so that it might be recognized and more easily defeated during phagocytosis and other immune responses to foreign invaders. There are no chicken embryos and monkey livers involed except perhaps in the cultivation or collection of the microorganisms.

How much longer can they continue to deny that they are causing our children to have autism and other diseases with these “recommended” vaccinations.

Why should they do anything *but* deny it? Why would medical professionals admit to an assertion based on hysteria, ignorance, poor education, and out-right confabulation and fear-mongering? There isn’t a single bit of scientific evidence which suggests that vaccines have anything to do with “autism and other diseases.”

You should do a little more research before you bash alternative treatments.

And you should obtain an education before you take a stand based on ignorance. It makes you look foolish. And, for that reason, it is perhaps wise that you chose to be anonymous in leaving your comment. But please: cite a source of information that should have been included in my “research.” If you reply to that at all, I’m sure it will be the standard woo retort, “why should I do your research for you,” given whenever said research doesn’t really exist except in the imagination.

Why not try acupuncture-you will find yourself in better shape for having had a treatment.

I might as well try eating deep-fried bannana peels and smoking cattail leaves. There’s precisely the same amount of evidence that they have any redeeming value in putting one in “better shape” as acupuncture.

I for one, after reading Kevin’s books, am happy to say, my family is drug free, healthier, and better for having been given Kevin’s powerful and true information.

Kevin Trudeau is a con artist. He’s a quack. A hack. He’s an asshole out to rip good, hardworking Americans off -stealing there money by making them fear medicine and doctors. I hope you don’t have to find it out the hard way.

Good luck to you and good health to you and your family.

To all else that read this comment, this is a good example of why science education and critical thinking skills should not be neglected in America to the extent that they are. I’m not a fan of “big pharma” and other corporations that are willing to profit on the misery and needs of hard-working people. Kevin T. has made himself out to be a “champion” of the underdog and the people, but he’s really out for #1. Himself. The guy *is* the establishment he pretends to warn others about. He exploits the fact that science education and critical thinking skills are not at a premium and that he can scam his marks into “buying” a book that doesn’t actually reveal any information about “natural cures.”

There is no substitue for scientific medicine. There is no “alternative” to it. Its either scientific or it isn’t.

Pulp Science Fiction is a cultural gem that I recently rediscovered at a second hand book store when I chanced upon a pile of science fiction anthologies. The cover art was fantastic! I ended up not purchasing any of them and immediately regretted it when I got home, so I spent the better part of an hour in Google looking at this art form and finding comic book and magazine covers from the 1950s and 1960s that were familiar to me from my childhood. I grew up in the late 60s and then the 70s, so the space craze was a very memorable. I remember watching Moon landings and wanting to be an astronaut like every other kid.

The art from the 1960s reveals an expectation that we had about the way things might be, should be, or perhaps the way we were afraid things would be. Jet packs, streamlined rocket ships with fins, girls in space with tight fitting spacesuits, and killer robots and aliens. Many of these themes still pervade modern science fiction, but not nearly with the style and drama brought to life in the imaginations of artists like Ron Turner and Frank R. Paul.

Jet Packs. Where are the jet packs? Isn’t that what was promised by science fiction in the day?

So strap on your jet pack, don your goldfish bowl helmet, and grab your ray gun. Then visit your tour guide, Middle Savagery, at the link above to begin a world tour of archaeology in action around the world. If you don’t have a jet pack, Middle Savagery links to a Flicker Group that specializes in archaeology photos. From the Isle of Wight to the Sudan, archaeology never looked so good.

The Picts have invaded A Corner of Tenth-Century Europe! These one-eyed tentacled beasts are snatching Spandex-Space-Suited girls and your help is needed to stop the invasion!

Or, perhaps the Picts began one of the first recycling programs in Scotland and weren’t alien monsters at all. Visit the link above and find out for yourself. Recycling? Really? In 600 CE no less! If you want to find out the details, read the post!

What could be more absurd than two scantily-clad boxers duking it out in front of an audience of robots? And did you notice one is straddling the other!?

To answer that question, click the link above and read Archaeoporn’s take on The Naked Archaeologist and a porn-star host of a “documentary” on the History Channel. The post at Archaeoporn provides a decent overview of the Shroud of Turin and the nonsense asserted by proponents of its authenticity. Archaeoporn’s critique centers around The Discovery Channel’s online article/slide show. He didn’t comment on it, but the PBS special “Secrets of the Dead: The Shroud of Christ” wasn’t much better.

Unless aliens landed in the night and started playing recordings of Pimsleur‘s Indo-European or the latest Rosetta Stone course in Pama-Nyungan (it is the choice of NASA!), then Language (big “L,” folks) is an evolved process. Terry Toohill has written this post on human evolution and touches on Language, Religion, and other topics as evolutionary processes within human culture.

If you were to visit Titan, a moon of Saturn, and you have a penchant for Coturnix coturnix, you can forget about logging into A Blog Around the Clock (dial up is too expensive from there and DSL lines aren’t in place yet). You’ll need to bring your quail with you!

And that’s what Archaeozoo’s post above describes with regard to an isolated Roman site in ancient Egypt. Not as isolated as Titan, this desert quarry still wasn’t in any position to order take-out, so they would have had to stock up on supplies. Read the post to find out about the domestic fowl play involved.

You might be tempted to think Archaeozoo has gone to the birds, but he has two posts to offer us today!

Perhaps it comes as a shock to some, but man has been known to exploit non-human species for human gain. Read about the wild birds netted on the Isle of Man as early as the 16th century, fattened up, then served up at the local KFC. Okay, maybe not the KFC.

Why become an anthropologist? Exotic travel to far away places and the joy of discovery. The beauty of it is, if you can’t leave your own chair due to budgeting, time management or gravity, you can click on the link above and visit Wanna be an Anthropologist and read his take on a presentation Paul attended “by Roland Fletcher, an archaeologist from the University of Sydney who is leading up the Greater Angkor Project.”

There are some great links and photos to the new discoveries at Angkor that reveal that “Angkor Wat [the temple itself] is just the tip of the iceberg– that it was the center of an enormous, low-density urban complex whose size (1000 square km) rivaled large modern day cities.”

I’m officially on vacation for a week. Other than a couple of days at Sea World, San Antonio at the end of the week (if I can get a dog sitter), I’m not planning on an out of town trip. I’ll probably take the kid to a couple of local museums, sites, and hiking since its her spring vacation. I’ll try to get a few photos if I go to the Kimble… I’ve been meaning to do a post about artifacts and the ethics of museum acquisitions and the Kimble has some pre-Columbian artifacts on display that might make a good jumping off point.

I’ve also recently purchased a Nokia N800 internet tablet which I love! I won’t go into a lot of details about it here, since I decided to blog about it at Hot Cup of Joe Tablet! I know what you’re thinking: “Carl, you haven’t even blogged here in a coon’s age, so why are starting a new blog?” The answer is simple: I really don’t know. The motivation to write comes and goes in spurts with me and I think a new spurt is coming (jeez, did I really just type that?).

Anyway, I’ve a few posts I’m working on here already and I’m going to be hosting the Four Stone Hearth soon (so send me your entries either through the submit link on the FSH page or to cfeagans AT gmail DOT com, FSH in the subject line). I’m either going to use a Doctor Who theme or a Pulp Sci Fi theme for this installment. If you want to vote on the theme, leave a comment here.

In the mean time, Coturnix at A Blog Around the Clock (a *must* read blog if you haven’t checked him out) has asked a couple of us anthropologist bloggers to read and comment on a PLoS One article on the Peopling of the Americas which he’s linked to in this post. I gave it a once over and will be reading it closer in the next day or so. Hopefully I’ll have a useful comment to add. I was aware of the article previously, but hadn’t the chance to really read it.